AUSTRALIA: Hospital Extension Allows Seniors More Options

BALLINA, NSW (ABC News), December 15, 2005: A $4.8 million extension to Ballina Hospital will help to maintain the independence of elderly people in their own homes. The NSW Government has announced that work will begin next week on the 18-bed specialised service, which aims to prevent early entry to nursing homes. The chief executive officer of the North Coast Area Health Service, Chris Crawford, says it is a level of service which is not currently available. "What happens now is that they end up in an acute hospital bed and so often they just go off straight to a nursing home or a hostel because we are not able to give them the right model of care to support them," he said. "They obviously get excellent care if they are in an acute care bed, but what they need is speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy and that's the sort of thing they'll get at the transitional care unit which prepares them to go back home."